Man gets life in killings of 2 Colorado women in 1982

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Associated Press via Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Man gets life in killings of 2 Colorado women in 1982

A man convicted of killing two women who disappeared near a Colorado ski resort town nearly 40 years ago after DNA testing identified him as a suspect has been sentenced to two terms of life in prison

By COLLEEN SLEVIN The Associated Press Nov 9, 2022 Updated 1 hr ago



ALAN LEE PHILLIPS

DENVER -- A man convicted of killing two women who disappeared near a Colorado ski resort town nearly 40 years ago after DNA testing identified him as a suspect was sentenced on Monday to two terms of life in prison, after the women's relatives called for the maximum punishment for the slayings that forever changed their families.

Alan Lee Phillips, 71, was convicted in September of two counts of first-degree murder and other charges in the killings of Annette Schnee, 21, and Barbara "Bobbi Jo" Oberholtzer, 29. ... Authorities said the two women, whose bodies were found in separate locations, had no connection. Both were believed to have been killed while hitchhiking outside Breckenridge, about 60 miles southwest of Denver, when they disappeared on Jan. 6, 1982. ... Friends and family discovered Oberholtzer's body the next day in a snow drift on the summit of 11,542-foot Hoosier Pass, near Breckenridge. Schnee's body was discovered six months later, fully clothed, by a boy fishing in a creek in rural Park County. Both women had been shot.

Investigators said Phillips was rescued the night that the women disappeared from the top of nearby Guanella Pass when his truck got stuck during a snowstorm, KUSA-TV reported.

Phillips, a miner and automobile mechanic, was arrested last year in Dumont, a small mountain town about an hour's drive away from Breckenridge, after living in the area for the past four decades. ... He plans to appeal his conviction, claiming the DNA evidence used against him was contaminated and mishandled.

{snip}

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Read more: https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/man-gets-life-in-killings-of-2-colorado-women-in-1982/article_768fad75-1100-5b61-ad0e-24eee140ef02.html